Can You Guess What This Is? Some Are Laughing, Others Are Saying ‘Ewwww’

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The above is a screenshot from a video, which we’ll show you in a bit, but for now, can you guess what it is? It’s something every human has, and we promise it isn’t something too disgusting.

There are times when the most usual, ordinary, everyday things viewed from different perspective can look downright weird. This is one of those cases.

What these screenshots show are the lips of a trombone player from inside the mouthpiece.

(Images: YouTube screenshots)

Watching them in motion, playing the instrument, is uncomfortable and fascinating at the same time. The lips look like a sea creature opening and closing as it pulls in and pushes out water.

The footage of the lips in motion is by trombone professor Jay Bulen at Truman State University and the actual role of “the lips” is played by Indiana University professor Peter Ellefson. This video as a whole was compiled with music by fellow trombonist David Finlayson, who is an instructor at the Manhattan School of Music.

Some in the comments on the video ask what the white flecks are on the musician’s lips. Finlayson responded saying they are “control points.”

“The researcher can measure the distance an exact part of the lip has traveled,” Finlayson said.

As io9′s Lauren Davis wrote, setting the trombone-playing lips to Tchaikovsky’s “Waltz of the Flowers” from “The Nutcracker” ballet ”adds a bit of comedic effect, but it would be cool to see how the lips operate for different musical maneuvers.”

This isn’t the first unusual perspective of making music Finlayson has brought to his viewers. Earlier this year, he attached a GoPro camera to the end of his trombone and began to play: